News agencies

As of September 2018, in Burundi there are two local press agencies (compared to five in March 2015) and 15 communication agencies (compared to none in March 2015). The best-known news agencies are a public and a private one:

  • The Agence Burundaise de Presse (Burundian News Agency - ABP) is a governmental agency with correspondents throughout the 18 provinces who cover the activities of local authorities. These correspondents are practically communicators of the provincial authorities and neglect the inhabitants as sources of information. The information disseminated therefore has no informative value to inspire other media.
  • Net Press is the private agency which plays a very important role in Burundian mainstream politics. Its director Jean Claude Kavumbagu has spent at least three terms in prison, under the regime of Pierre and the current regime.

Other online agencies, like SOS Media, offer information that either supports or opposes power. The CNC council is supposed to manage their operations, but struggles to do so.